


Leslie's Distraction

by ads04



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28886160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ads04/pseuds/ads04
Summary: The Parks Department has just heard the news that Leslie has been removed from city council. Now that her position is officially lost, Leslie is feeling in the pits and doesn't know how to handle herself. She soon realizes that the only thing that will keep her mind away from the news is to do what she does best – be the outgoing person she is and shower her friends with love and appreciation.Leslie quickly sets up a celebration that consists of giving each member of the Parks Department personalized awards. By giving everyone else something to celebrate, Leslie hopes she can forget her loss and move on. This is how it all plays out.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Leslie's Distraction

“Leslie… Leslie, wake up.”

“Huh… huh, what?” Leslie groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. She was face down on a bench- the one right outside of her office. “Please tell me that was just a terrible nightmare.”

Leslie replayed the moment of hearing the news over and over in her head. She always knew that losing her position as city councilwoman was a possibility, but she never expected it to become a reality.

“No, unfortunately it wasn’t,” Ben replied. “You came into work this morning wearing an “I hate Mondays” shirt and you were eating a Paunch burger, which is shocking because you hate Paunch burgers and love Mondays.”

“Oh God, what would Michelle Obama think if she saw me right now?” Leslie whined. 

“Well, I think Mrs. Obama would want you to keep moving forward, Leslie,” Ben insisted. “You’re upset and I get that, trust me. Everyone here gets it too. If anything their moods are reflecting off yours. Everyone seems to be in a funk after hearing the news.”

“Really?”

“Totally. For starters, I saw Chris Traeger of all people yawn. I didn’t even know that man knew what sleep was. Also, I noticed Tom actually working on things relevant to his job here.”

“Oh my god. He never does that.”

“Oh and another thing, Donna hasn’t tweeted once today.”

Leslie quickly turned her head in shock. “What?”

“Mhm,” Ben assured her. “So something is definitely off.” He paused and thought about what he could say to get Leslie back on track. “Hey, I don’t know if you remember but you still have 30 days to get things done in your position-”

“Stop,” she interrupted. Leslie was appalled. “I refuse to be the reason my friends aren’t acting like themselves. What kind of friend would I be if I just let them go about their day like this? W-W-M-O-D?”

“W-what?” Ben questioned. “Is that an acronym?”

Leslie shot back at him, “What Would Michelle Obama Do?” 

Ben started to realize that Leslie’s motivation was returning. After all, he knows how passionate she gets when talking about Michelle Obama. He thought that perhaps if he just went along with what she was saying, she would realize where her priorities now lie on her own. “Well, I’m not really sure what the First Lady has to do with anything going on right now but if you’re asking my honest opinion I think she might-”

“THAT’S IT! I know what to do,” Leslie interrupted. She rose from the bench and ran inside. With a cackle, Leslie yelled, “Let’s Move! Get it, Ben?” 

“Good one,” Ben yelled back. “Do you need me to do anything?”

“Just get the group here in an hour. I have a surprise.” Leslie shut her office door and immediately grabbed her emergency arts and crafts kit from under her desk. 

Not even an hour later, Leslie emerged from her office with a large box filled to the brim with what looked like a pile of junk. Ron, April, Andy, Tom, and Donna sat at the table while Ann, Ben, Chris, and Jerry stood around them. They exchanged looks of confusion as Leslie set the box down on April’s desk. She looked at them with a deranged smile. 

“You have probably all been wondering why I’ve gathered you here.” Leslie questioned, “I heard you’re all having an off day, correct?”

“If this is about me doing my job I’ll have you know that it was a New Year’s resolution of mine to pull it together.” Tom explained.

Ann looked at him with an annoyed face and ridiculed him. “It’s October.” 

“I got a late start! Tom looked around to see everyone scoffing at him. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. So what’s with the box?”

“It looks like it’s filled with creepy toys made by children,” April added with a smirk.

Andy’s face lit up. “It does! One time when I was a kid my teacher asked me to clean out my desk in school and I ended up with a whole box filled with toys just like that one.” 

“That happened last week, Andrew,” Ron claimed. “I was the one who asked you to clean the toys out of your desk.”

“Oh…” Andy replied. 

Leslie groaned. “See this is what I mean. Tom’s doing work, Andy’s losing his memory, April is… well April is always weird so that’s alright, and I can feel the romantic tension between me and Ann fading.”

Ann questioned, “The what?”

“Nevermind that, I have a surprise. To fix the mood I have decided to put a little something together.” Leslie pulls out a poster with handwritten words and decorations drawn on it. “I didn’t have time to make a banner which I would have, of course, because you all deserve the best.”

“Knope’s Really Awesome Award Party?” Donna wondered.

Chris smiled. “That is literally the cutest poster I have ever seen. Nice work Leslie.”

Leslie smiled. “Thank you Chris! And for short we can call it K-R-A-A-...”

“Crap.” Jerry blurted.

Leslie turned to him. “What’s wrong with you?”

“No, nothing. It’s just... the abbreviation you’re spelling is pronounced like crap. K-R-A-A-P. Crap.”

“Damn-it Jerry.” Leslie put her hand on her forehead and let out a frustrated sigh. 

“Okay,” Ben interjected, “why don’t we let Leslie hand out her awards and-”

“Her crap awards?” April chimed in.

The entire group except for Ben and Ann let out a small laugh. Leslie looked down at her feet. Ben noticed Leslie’s hurt feelings and put his hand on her shoulder. 

“No, April, enough okay? C'mon guys, let’s just have fun.”

“And let’s be grateful that Leslie did this for us,” Ann added. She looked at Leslie, “It’s super sweet of you to go through all of this for us when we know how you’re feeling.”

“Oh Ann, you angelic snow owl.” Leslie replied.

“Okay enough with the shenanigans,” Tom emphasized, “Tommy’s got work to do.” 

Ann scolded Tom and looked back at Leslie. His words were clearly not helping. Leslie tried her best to ignore him and moved on. She picked up the first award. 

“Okay, here we go. This award goes to someone I love and admire and am often intimidated by for... no particular reason. She is fierce and the world is lucky to have the privilege of reading about her daily explorations online. Ladies and gentlemen, the award for-”

“Crap award.” April interrupted.

Leslie sighed and quickly continued. She decided to go along with it. “The crap award for Pawnee’s Most Cherished Tweeter is Donna Meagle!”

The group clapped. Leslie handed an award made out of an old paper windmill to Donna. She had colored it in with Donna’s favorite colors, pink and purple, and attached a tag to it with the award name written in capital letters. The smile on Leslie’s face was beaming.

“Thank you Leslie,” Donna said while examining the creation, “I love it.”

Anxiously, Leslie asked, “Love it enough to tweet about it?” 

“Well I don’t really-”

“Oh come on Donna just one tweet. You love tweeting. Just tweet once. One tweet. Just one tweet.” Leslie was desperate to help. All she wanted was for people to go back to normal. She was getting louder with each sentence. With her desperation clouding her mind, Leslie didn’t realize how much Donna did not like being yelled at. After being tortured with the same question, Donna was pushed over her edge.

“You know what,” Donna snapped, “I’m not really in the mood to tweet and quite frankly I don't like when people are barking orders at me.”

Leslie paused. She knew her plan was not working and her nagging only made Donna want to tweet less. With a face full of disappointment, Leslie slowly walked away from Donna and back to the box of awards. 

“You know Leslie, you don’t have to do this.” Ron stated. 

Leslie looked up at him. “I do though, Ron. I’m trying to think like Michelle Obama. She would have the perfect answer… she has all the answers.”

“Well, yeah Michelle Obama can do anything,” Andy noted, “she’s basically like… the president.”

Ignoring Andy, Ron continued, “This doesn’t have to be the way you handle this.”

Leslie looked at the group to see them all staring at each other in angst. They were silent. The anxious looks to each other were signs of understanding that at any moment, Leslie could break.

“But it does,” Leslie disagreed. 

“But Knope, it doesn’t.”

“Ron, please just let me do this.”

“There’s no need. I can’t keep looking at you smile the way you do when you hand these things out. It’s creepy. And to be blunt, you’re just distracting yourself from the truth.”

“I-” Leslie stopped herself. She knew he was right, but she did not want to admit it. She picked up another award. This one was for Chris. With one last look at the group, she saw Tom checking his watch, Andy staring into the abyss, April staring directly into her soul, and most unfortunately, Chris yawning. Leslie turned bright red and she felt her face heat up. The pace of her breathing picked up. She was about to burst. Ben noticed her mood change and knew he had to say something.

Ben began saying, “Why don’t we continue-”

“WHY CAN’T I DO ANYTHING RIGHT ANYMORE?” Leslie yelled, interrupting him. “I just lost my job and this is the only sense of control I feel like I have. And I clearly can’t even do this right.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes. “I just need to feel like I can still give people something to look forward to. Something to be excited about gaining. Helping others is all I ever wanted to do. I thought making you all feel better would make me feel the same. But I still feel like...” she stops for a moment.

“Like crap?” Andy innocently wondered.

“Yeah Andy, like crap. And honestly? I thought you guys would help but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to work. So here, just take them.” Leslie starts handing out her awards. “Chris, you get Pawnee’s Best Fitness Enthusiast. Tom, here’s yours for Pawnee’s Swaggiest Man in Town. Jerry, here’s a balloon I found and blew up because I didn’t know how to reward you. Andy, yours is Pawnee’s Class Clown. April, for obvious reasons, you get Pawnee’s Devil Reincarnated. Ron is Pawnee’s Best Man for Every Job as well as Best Facial Hair. Ben you get Pawnee’s Closest Thing to Joe Biden, clearly. And finally, Ann here are your main five awards that have long and detailed explanations. I have a whole other box filled with more in my office that I’ll just show you later.”

Ann looked up at Leslie. “Oh Leslie, these must have taken you forever.” 

“Whatever, it was a waste of time anyway. I’m just a waste of time. Go ahead and get back to your work. I need to be alone.” Leslie walked out of the room and headed upstairs.

Leslie sat on the bench in front of the wildflower mural. It was her comfort spot. She knew that coming here would give her a moment to breathe. An hour of breathing and contemplating her situation went by. Eventually, she heard Ben’s footsteps coming towards her.

“How are you feeling Mrs. Obama?” He questioned, jokingly.

“A bit better. Still frustrated and confused and stressed and sad and angry, but better.”

“I’m sorry for the way things went down there. I wish everyone was a bit more considerate of how you were feeling and what you were trying to do. Clearly everyone is on edge. But I can assure you, the awards were not a waste. Though I do think 15 awards for Ann was a bit much.”

Leslie chuckled. “No, Ben, Ann doesn’t have enough awards.”

“Agree to disagree,” Ben laughed, “are you feeling up to come back downstairs?”

“For what? So they can mock me and tell me that I’m crazy?”

“I think they’ll be much nicer this time around.”

Ben put his hand out and gestured for Leslie to take it. She did, and they walked together back down to the parks department. Upon arriving, Leslie was greeted with the group all surrounding April’s desk. 

“What’s going on here?” Leslie asked. 

April spoke up. “We wanted to say we’re sorry for ruining your awards party. So, in return, we created an award for you.”

“Each of us understand how this has been hard for you,” Chris added, “like literally the worst. But we want to be behind you every step of the way on your journey to recover your career and use the time you have left to get stuff done.”

April continued, “So by the power vested in me with the Devil on my side I present the Pawnee’s Most Reliable and Greatest Leader Award to you, Leslie Knope.”

The group cheered. Leslie held the award made out of post-its and Jerry’s balloon. She admired the group’s effort to cheer her up and her extreme smile returned. 

“Remember you still have 30 days left in your position to finish some of the projects you planned. Talk about W-W-M-O-D... I think she’d use these last days to her advantage. Not to mention, we’ll all be with you every step of the way,” Ann assured her. 

“You’re right,” Leslie admitted, “I’m so lucky to have you guys. Let's get back to normal first though. Tom stop doing what you’re supposed to. Andy… do whatever you need to to make the averagely idiodic Andy come back. Chris get back to your unnoticeable no sleep schedule. And Donna…” She paused.

“Don’t worry,” Donna said, “I noticed the tag on my award said “cherry twizzler” instead of “cherished tweeter” so I tweeted a meme about it an hour ago. 200 likes already!”

“You know me, always thinking about food. Speaking of, celebratory JJ’s Diner anyone?” Leslie asked.

The group agreed and headed out. It wasn’t until halfway into their meal when they realized they left Jerry in the bathroom at City Hall, but it didn’t matter anyway because it was better without him. Leslie ate her waffles topped with at least a pound of whipped cream and let her worries leave her for a moment. She looked around at the table and realized no matter what the challenge is, she had the best team of people to help her get through it.


End file.
